Surveillance footage is a government record like anything else. The only major problem would be privacy issues. If the agency does not know the identity of the people in the footage, it has to redact them, which for video is a more time-consuming and expensive process.

News organizations have frequently requested such video, and gotten it, from government. If government has recorded the video tape, this would fall under the regular FOI or FOIA request…whether from state or federal agency. Generally if government has recorded the video, and it is not part of criminal investigation or meets some exception to the law, it should be available.

If the question is about private security cameras, then there is no right of access under those laws. Oftentimes police agencies will get camera video from private entities and ask media to air it to help identify a person, etc.
BCF

I have some experience with this in Oregon and under state law, at least, surveillance tapes are treated as any other kind of record so long as the tapes are property of a government entity. Sometimes they can be withheld under rules that exempt disclosure of items that are part of pending investigations. But they are available and kind of handy here in taking a close look at crimes that occur on public transit, train platforms, etc.

I’m not sure why federal law would be any different but I don’t have any experience trying it.